Seems standard now.
We probably will struggle to fill slots VGS is a 90 min drive and parents will tell us to jog on about dropping them there
Seems standard now.
We probably will struggle to fill slots VGS is a 90 min drive and parents will tell us to jog on about dropping them there
Where?
Upavons our local
Seems utterly pointless flying and gliding starting up for most Sqns.
Parents wont drive their darlings 2 hours to a site. Wait around then drive back.
All on the off chance not cancelled due weather.
Unless HQAC is going to authorise 5 people in a car or 12 in a minibus again of course.
I kinda ment where on twitter was the announcment
massive face palm
Comdt 2FTS
I think it’s a step in the right direction…just a logistical nightmare
Logistically might be easiest to get a phoenix coach so they can all sit 2m apart…!
On a serious note though, do phoenix do ‘large minibus’ hire? Thinking like a 20 seater. With that you might be able to get 6 cadets and a staff member all properly distanced? Just going to be a hell of a lot more expensive than pre-covid?
It’s just the VGSs that have been given approval to fly cadets.
The seating arrangements in the tutor mean that cadet flying has not yet been authorised.
Because he’s already told the VGS’s and it will no doubt take time for allocations to filter, if a VGS found out this way it would be wrong.
Link - https://twitter.com/fts_2/status/1312506160830844928?s=21
Pointless exercise if the numerous Covid19 limitations (travel especially) will negate the approval.
This should have cascaded down the CoC with any associated inputs / guidance, NOT via SM.
Shall we ask about options for any revised ACTO35?
I’m not sure it’s the approval that will be the sticking point, it will be staff willing to take cadets in their private vehicles. None of the staff on the squadron are currently willing to transport cadets and so it will be parents, public transport or nothing. Before anyone says “little Johnnie or Jane won’t be able to go”, my wife and I did many thousands of miles taking our kids to sport fixtures, so parents will do it, because as a parent it’s what you do. I think parents of cadets over the years must have thought it was all their Christmas’ come at once, as they just need to drop off their kiddywinks and someone else takes them. This virus will be a game changer in the youth group world for a while. As a result HQAC are going to have to bite the bullet and put their hands in their pockets for once and pay for multiple car drivers or provide transport, as long as staff are willing to be chaperones on coaches.
A bloke at work manages a youth football team and he has said away games have become a problem as parents are only taking their own kids.
There will be some kids that’ll miss out, and not lift sharing will be a pain…
I do remember the way our football league planned out that my folks had to drive me up to 60 miles for an away fixture… Parents always did.
I think the main difference though was that all the parents could gather on to the touch line, have a catch up and also watch the game…
There’s much less incentive for a parent to drive 60 miles to an raf station to sit at the gate or in the nearest McDonald’s all day…
Our VGS is 60+ miles away, so I doubt it. It also won’t be equipped with gliders for a while, so only the aviation ground school / cockpit trainers will be on offer (as it was prior to Covid19). Oh, would I take cadets in a private car (if permitted!) just for that at the moment? Probably not, despite it being one of the few (tenuous) links that they will have with aviation for a while.
Sadly just seems to be the way it is now. I don’t agree with it. I’d really appreciate if this was one of the things that’s looked at by the new Comdt with a new point of view!
Yes please! We’ve got a private gliding club a few minutes away from the unit! Would love to get cadets flying there. Currently our nearest VGS is over an hour away, and they don’t have any gliders anyway!
Wait till someone comes out with that the driver, and passengers, must wear masks as per MOD policy.
There was meant to be a policy “adjustment” of some kind in Apr - although I would have hoped that much of the planning for this would have already been actioned, despite any prospective delays caused by Covid19. Plonk a message to your Wg / R Av O to ask for updates. Near to us, Cambridge Gliding Centre are back in action, so we would very much welcome the ability to use such facilities.
We seem to have a new R Av O, so will message him in the same vein.
Telling me that would make it even less likely to enthuse me to the notion of transporting cadets.
The buses for our local secondary schools have the kids wearing masks and no segregation’s and on the minibuses it’s the same.
Really confusing seeing the MT seating. The cadets can be less than 2m in a class room if they wear masks yet not on a minibus.